Thursday, October 31, 2013

Holidays are approaching fast

Here's my project for the year- (at least they don't have to worry about melting!)

They're a little less than 2" tall, plus or minus, half inch thick and inch and change wide. They come out of scrap, I love to find uses for scrap. Flat on the back they have a little rare earth magnet glued on so they can hang around the fridge. ( where else would little fatties like these hang out?) did a couple last year, without mittens, the arms I drew on looked pretty lame. Mittens are better. One of my forum-buddies suggested a method of painting on coal-eyes etc, I'll give that a try next. they're getting snatched up pretty quick.

Little larger and 3-D would make a nice bottle stopper I think...

Basswood, of course. Paint is acrylics mixed with water base polyurethane, roughly equal amounts. I keep painting it on continuously until it stops soaking in and all surfaces start to shine. One shot, color and urethane protection combined- I have some bottle stoppers we use regularly painted this way with no signs of wear in a year, anyway. They hold up to a quick rinse under the faucet and pat dry immediately.

I took a walk on the simple side with these guys- no bandsaw, no sawing the outline. Grabbed a coping saw and cut little pieces off the blank at the same angle as the top of the hat- wanted to minimize whittling end grain- the rest was done with my trusty knife. You can do it too. Give it a try.

With the holidays ramping up and work on the house ramping down, I'm hoping I can find some extra time to whittle.